The Three Treasures or Three Jewels () are theoretical cornerstones in traditional Chinese medicine and Taoist cultivation practices such as , , wuxingheqidao and . They are shen ("spirit") , qi ("breath," "vital force") and jing ("essence").
The French sinologist Despeux summarizes:
Etymology and meaning This Chinese name originally referred to the Daoist "Three Treasures" from the Daodejing, chapter 67: "pity", "frugality", and "refusal to be 'foremost of all things under heaven'". It has subsequently also been used to refer to the and and to the Chinese Buddhist concept and interpretation of the Three Jewels, first the Fó (佛) The Buddha or enlightened one, Fǎ (法) The Dharma or teachings and Sēng (僧)The Sangha, the Monastic community.
In long-established Chinese traditions, the "Three Treasures" are the essential energies sustaining human life the cosmological arrangement is: () "Cosmological Spirit; soul, mind; god, deity; supernatural abilities and yang activity, is associated with the Heart and lungs in the upper thoracic cavity" () Qi can mean many things and is completely dependent on context. In this case it is about the blending of Shen and Jing, the above and below or Heaven and Earth as seen in the meaning of the character for Qi, rice (Jing) bellow and vapour (Shen) above, this in turn is what gives rise to the quality of experience and expression in and to life. It is the abdominal cavity that provides digestion and cognition giving rise to the 10 thousand things. () "nutritive essence, essence; ancestral spirit, extract; refined, perfected yin in nature, lower pelvic cavity"
This Shen-qi-Jing ordering is more commonly used than the variants qi-jing-shen and Jing-qi-Shen.
Neidan
The Daoist "Mind-Seal Scripture of the Exalted Jade Sovereign" ( (), or the "Imprint of the Heart" (), is a valuable early source about the Three Treasures.
Frederic H. Balfour's brief 1884 essay about the "Imprint of the Heart" () contains the earliest known Western reference to the Three Treasures:
Four stages In ("internal alchemy") practice, transmuting the Three Treasures is expressed through the sequence: () "laying the foundations" () "refining essence into breath" () "refining breath into spirit" () "refining spirit and reverting to emptiness"
Sanyuan Both , Confucianism and Traditional Chinese Medicine distinguish the between "pre heaven" ( ), referring to what is innate or natural, and "post heaven" ( ), referring to what is acquired in the course of life.
The former are the "three origins" ( ): "Original essence" ( ) "Original breath" ( ) "Original spirit" ( )
Xing The Huainanzi () relates and to ("form; shape; body"):
Chinese culture The Journey to the West (late 16th century CE) novel refers to the Three Treasures when an enlightened Daoist patriarch instructs Sun Wukong ("Monkey") with a poem that begins:
References
Bibliography
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External links Three Treasures of Taoism: Jing, Qi and Shen in Qigong, Aknanda Qigong Academy THE 3 TREASURES OF LIFE: Jing/Qi/Shen, Frances Gander